Danny King was executed by the State of Virginia for the murder of Carolyn Rogers
According to court documents Danny King would lure Carolyn Rogers to an empty house on the premise of purchasing the property. When Carolyn Rogers would arrive she would be beaten to death and robbed
Danny King would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Danny King would be executed by lethal injection on July 23 1998
Danny King Photos
Danny King Case
Danny Lee King, 47, was executed by injection tonight for murdering a Roanoke real estate agent who was beaten, kicked, choked and stabbed to death in 1990.
King, of Roanoke, was pronounced dead at 9:08 p.m. at the Greensville Correctional Center. Warden Loretta Kelly said King had no final words, shaking his head when she asked him if he wanted to make a statement.
The execution came hours after Virginia Gov. James S. Gilmore III refused to intervene. The U.S. Supreme Court voted 7 to 2 on Wednesday to deny a stay of execution and a separate appeal from King.
King’s clemency appeal to Gilmore included affidavits from two jurors who reportedly were having second thoughts about having condemned him to death.
In a brief statement, Gilmore said he had thoroughly reviewed the case and would not step in. Since taking office in January, Gilmore has allowed all seven scheduled executions to proceed
On Oct. 11, 1990, King and his former wife, Becky Smith, posed as potential home buyers to lure Carolyn Rogers to a vacant Roanoke County home.
According to court records, Smith said she went outside to smoke while Rogers and King toured the house. She went back inside, she said, and saw King standing over Rogers’s body.
Fearful of King and following his orders, Smith said, she later pawned Rogers’s wedding ring and forged some checks stolen from her purse. Because police traced those items to her, Smith was first charged with the killing. But during her trial, King confessed to the slaying in a statement to Smith’s attorney.
King changed his story during his trial and continued to insist that his ex-wife did the killing.
In the petition to Gilmore, King’s attorneys said that at least two jurors didn’t know who did the killing. “There was no definitive evidence presented to us indicating which person, Danny King or Becky King, stabbed and killed Ms. Rogers,” the petition quoted one juror as saying
But Roanoke County Chief Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Randy Leach said the jury was instructed on Virginia’s trigger-man rule, which holds that if there are multiple defendants in a capital murder case, only the person who inflicted the fatal wound can be put to death
